(An earlier version of this story said Pence, during his visit to Muncie, was surprised by district voters' concern for veterans' affairs. Pence did not use the word surprised. "Congressman Pence never said he was surprised about veterans' issues being a concern in the Sixth District," spokesman Ted Goodman said. "He's been aware of that far longer than before running for Congress." — Editor).

MUNCIE, Ind. — U.S. Rep. Greg Pence greeted constituents and The Star Press — for the first time — during an open house at his new Muncie office on Thursday.

During an interview, the Republican congressman said constituents are tired of hearing about the Mueller Report; talked about getting things done with bipartisan support, and disclosed plans to file his first bill.

So far, the freshman representative has co-sponsored 19 bills, of which 10 of the authors are Democrats, according to ProPublica, a non-profit producer of investigative journalism.

"A lot of bills get passed but you don't hear about them on TV, the drama," Pence said. "A lot of bills are bipartisan. As an example, we now have a national park, Indiana Dunes. All of the delegation did that … That is one of the things I share with people. 'Does anything get done?' Yeah, things get done every day."

Other bills sponsored by Democrats and co-sponsored by Pence, a Marine veteran and brother of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, include:

• The Biodiesel Tax Credit Extension Act of 2019.

• The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, outlawing the possession, sale and trade of shark fins, which are harvested by slicing the fins of live sharks and throwing the mutilated animals back into the ocean to die, according to the sponsor.

• The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which allows Navy vets to receive the presumption of exposure to the herbicide/defoliant Agent Orange. Current policy extends only to those who served on land in Vietnam or in inland waterways.

• The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, a bill to remove the arbitrary per-county limits in the employment-based green card system.

Pence, who has voted in line with President Trump's position 100 percent of the time so far, has co-sponsored GOP-authored bills including one brought by Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, to study the feasibility of extending the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail from Wood River, Ill., to Pittsburgh; a free-speech bill allowing nonprofits to make certain statements related to political campaigns without losing tax-exempt status; and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, regarding health care practitioners' degree of care in the event a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion.

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Rep. Greg Pence visited Muncie Thursday afternoon to speak with constituents during an open house for his new Muncie office location on Ethel Avenue. (Photo: Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press)

What's on people's minds when Pence travels around the Sixth District?

Infrastructure, jobs, tariffs, NAFTA, health care, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and veterans affairs, he said. "That's what people are talking about."

"Interesting to me when I first got into this, how much veterans' issues mattered to the Sixth District," Pence went on. "While we don't have that many veterans, we have a huge population of veteran families."

He noted how much veterans' issues matter in the district, given the relative lack of veterans. "While we don't have that many veterans, we do have a huge population of veterans' families," he said.

What people aren't talking about is The Mueller Report, Pence said: "I've gone around the last two weeks and nobody's really that concerned about that. I think there's a little bit of Mueller fatigue, to be honest with you."

What about impeachment talk? "Nobody's talking to me about impeachment either, not here in the Sixth district," Pence said.

The first bill Pence sponsors could be "kind of an exemption" to regulations on how many hours truck drivers may drive if they are hauling livestock.

"You really can't hit that hour and pull the truck over or your produce will go bad," he said. "I first heard about this from a lot of livestock folks out west hauling hogs or cows. When it's 110 degrees we can't pull over for four or five hours and they cook in the truck."

Linda Muckway, a wheelchair user from Muncie, was pleasantly surprised, "amazed actually," that Pence's new district office was able to get a wheelchair ramp installed when she called on Thursday to report that a photo of the office in The Star Press showed the office was not accessible. "I was able to get congress to move in one day," she said.

Further, Muckway was pleasantly surprised that Pence, "who is usually in hiding," was not only present for the opening of the new office but told her he might support the Lymphedema Treatment Act at her request.

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Rep. Greg Pence visited Muncie Thursday afternoon to speak with constituents during an open house for his new Muncie office location on Ethel Avenue. (Photo: Jordan Kartholl/The Star Press)

Pence, from the time he began running for Congress about a year ago until Thursday, had declined to be interviewed by The Star Press.

He acted as though he was unaware that he has had a history of bypassing the newspaper and other media, saying, "I did 10 this week," speaking of press interviews.

He promised to reach out to the media again when he is in the Muncie area.

The office at 2810 W. Ethel Ave., off Tillotson Avenue behind a KFC restaurant, will be open from 8:30 am. until 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The phone number is 765 702-2434.

It is being staffed by Karrie Pardieck, constituent services representative. She helped constituents with Social Security concerns when Mike Pence (now vice president) was a congressman, then worked for former Rep. Messer (in the Muncie office) as a constituent liaison on Social Security and Medicare.